Vintage Fridge: Sometimes hoarding the old beats trading up.

In 1958 my grandfather built a clapboard cornflower blue cottage in Kannata Valley, Saskatchewan. It’s since passed down through three generations. Parts of its charm are the many retro trappings that still exist in all their 56-year-old Value Village-esque glory.

From the sea-foam green plastic curtains, to a red manual can opener fastened to the cedar plank kitchen wall, to a tank of a white Frigidaire refrigerator that sits like a beast beside the cabin door. (I’m told it’s one of the oldest models in the country.) A chug-chug-hum-and-sputter one that still works and which faithfully, each summer, cools our family’s cans of pop, pilsner and popsicles.

But truth be told, it’s a darn good thing we only use it in the summertime (for nostalgic purposes paying homage to our “Papa” who put it there eons earlier). Refrigerators are one of the highest energy suckers you can keep at home. Can you imagine the cost to your wallet to store such a behemoth, let alone operate it on a daily basis?

Glad we still get to spend our few precious weeks each year, loading her up and cracking open the treats Ol`Bessie provides us—before letting her chill out while the seasons change—instead of putting her out to pasture.

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I'm a Canadian Journalist, Copywriter, Editor and 'PUN'dit. I enjoy luxuriating in memoir, biography, women's fiction and literary non-fiction. Self-ascribed TV crackhead who loves birds, kitties and Mama Earth's wonderful creations. Oh, and life would not be complete without paper bags full of Swedish Berries, strong, hot, dark roast every morning, wine to celebrate wins ... and cheese, just because.